Suspect In Woman's Killing Hangs Himself, Police Say

May 18, 2006|By Lisa J. Huriash Staff Writer

The Sunrise man wanted in the killing of his pregnant girlfriend in their apartment earlier this month was found dead in Naples on Wednesday morning, after using the seat belt from her stolen vehicle to hang himself in the woods, according to police.

Anthony Thomas DeCarolis was found dead about 10 a.m. near U.S. 41 East and Collier Boulevard, according to Sunrise Lt. Robert Voss. On a hunch that the missing seat belt would be used in his death, a Collier County Sheriff's Office investigator searching the woods discovered the body about 200 feet from where the vehicle had been found, Voss said.

DeCarolis, 25, was wanted on two counts of first-degree murder in the May 6 death of Elizabeth Kenna, 24, and the unborn son she had carried for nine months.

Voss said she had been stabbed "multiple times covering the body." But authorities still don't know why Kenna, whose baby was due Friday, was killed.

Kenna's body was found in a second-floor apartment in the 10700 block of Northwest 40th Way in the Water's Edge apartment complex. Police immediately started looking for DeCarolis and Kenna's gray, four-door Mitsubishi Lancer.

Investigators allege DeCarolis left the apartment he shared with Kenna before her body was discovered, taking her vehicle, cell phone, ATM card and various credit cards. According to officials, DeCarolis attempted to use Kenna's ATM card 18 times in the next two days and was captured on surveillance cameras at various locations in Broward and Collier counties.

Rosemary Brittain, a teacher at Happyland Pre-School in Fort Lauderdale, employed Kenna as her assistant. Kenna had been at the school for five years, she said.

"She was a very special girl, very sweet," Brittain said. "You don't know how much this has hurt us all, especially the children. We told them she was with God, her and the baby. That seemed to help them. They really loved her."

Brittain said Kenna was going to name her son Dylan. Alisa DeCarolis, DeCarolis' mother, who was reached by telephone at her Plantation home, said the family did not wish to comment.